I think hits the nail on the head. Blue collar America has an apathy problem and the path forward is addressing that. It's not apathy because they don't care what happens to America - it's because they see all politicians as corrupt liars. By the time election day rolls around the only consideration they see is the end of political ads. The old notion of civic duty is just that, 'old'. The question before us is how to engage these folks in a way that isn't off putting.

Because this article is using hard voter counts it should also be adjusting for population changes. The continued flight of rural populations into suburbs and cities has likely scewed the numbers that the article is looking at. There were fewer white rural votes because there are fewer rural inhabitants. The growth in suburban voting numbers is likely due, in part, to this demographic shift.